Monday, 14 October 2013

Forgotten Spaces 2013

The Royal Institute of British Architects are staging a major architecture exhibition at Somerset House with a showcase of the hugely popular Forgotten Spaces ideas competition. Website



Tuesday, 19 February 2013

The Planners

interesting episode of BBC2 fly-on-the-wall documentary, 'The Planners'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01qrt24/The_Planners_Episode_3/

A Cheshire businessman on the brink of financial ruin is hoping that his fourth attempt to get planning permission to build 31 new houses will finally get the go ahead. Rochdale's Shia Muslims clash with the planners over the design of the extension to their local community centre. Two residents go head-to-head over the erection of a two-foot fence on an open plan estate in Cheltenham. And in Stroud, a wife defends her husband's right to build a large shed to house his beloved trucks....

- Interesting how different sides are presented in this series, who gets filmed and how (eg at home with kids etc)

Friday, 7 September 2012

Housing announcements Sep 2012

Good Summary from Inside Housing
http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/third-time-lucky?%2F6523596.blog

According to Centre for Cities: "Fundamentally, the measures are based upon the premise that the planning system is the key issue both in the short term and long term to getting the more houses that the country needs.  While there are definite gains to be made by tweaking the system, we also need house builders to pull their weight too.
Many house-builders bought land at the peak of the market and are now stuck, understandably unwilling to incur losses. But this means there are large amounts of land which have permission granted but on which no building is taking place.  This restricted supply of both land and housing is pushing up prices.
Part of the problem is the lack of competition within this industry. It is dominated by a few large firms who are not incentivised to keep prices competitive nor incentivised to sell on land they can’t/won’t build on.  Options for encouraging more competition within the industry as well exploring ways to use the tax system to ensure that land with planning permission is built out within a reasonable time-frame need to be explored further.  Recent initiatives such as IKEA’s cheap, flat-pack houses, as well the refocus on the role of self-build offer a glimpse as to how the industry might develop in the future."

Saturday, 19 May 2012

Olympics Brand Exclusion Zone

http://newsfeed.kosmograd.com/kosmograd/2012/05/olympics-brand-exclusion-zone.html

"The spatial politics of brand paranoia ... the marketeers are way ahead of the urbanists in understanding how the city works"

Thursday, 10 May 2012

How to Make Archway Tower Disappear


A viewer has been temporarily installed on the Holloway Road near the corner of St John’s Grove in Archway. The viewer is fixed in position and resembles the sort one would normally find at the end of a seaside pier. When you look through it you see the real world in real time, however looking northwest up the Holloway Road you see that the Archway Tower has disappeared.
Archway Town Centre | How to Make Archway Tower Disappear